> Ok, let's set aside "10x" because many previous discussions about it have shown it is a distasteful description to some. For those who do not believe in the "

> Ok, let's set aside "10x" because many previous discussions about it have shown it is a distasteful description to some. For those who do not believe in the "10x programmer", how do you feel about programmers such as John Carmack (Doom, Oculus)[1], Fabrice Bellard (ffmpeg, pi algorithm)[2], Linus Torvalds (Linux, Git), TJ Holowaychuk (node.js projects)? I don't question that those brilliance of the people you mentioned but as edw519 says, in his free ebook [1], > I'm not suggesting that you'll go out and write Rails in 3 weekends. What I am suggesting is that the more I meet "famous" hackers and the more I meet people from this community (online and offline), the more I realize that there's not really all that much that separates us. > Lot's of people are obviously brilliant. And even for those who are a little less brilliant, brilliance is only one part of the equation. Work habits, determination, perseverence, passion, and maybe most of all, belief, are just as important. Don't sell yourself short. What I suggest is, a magical genetic gift, might not be the reason why those guys achieved so much. It might be because they were more "aggressive" and "focused" hackers. They insisted on building everyday and chose to work upon very challenging problems. [1]: http://static.v25media.com/edw519_mod.html http://static.v25media.com/edw519_mod.html